My two babies are almost 4 months old and they will not eat one bite of dry. I have tried mixing in with the wet and they will pick and choose and spit out the kibbles. It's a very good dry food, grain free holistic recommended by our breeder. It's pretty expensive with 4 cans of wet a day. What is everyone's opinion on dry vs. wet and should I try to get the to eat some? It seems that cats in the wild would not be eating something dried up and crunchy as they would kills a bird, mouse etc. so the dry does not seem natural to me. All of my other cats over the years at dry, but these bengals won't touch it!

My two babies are almost 4 months old and they will not eat one bite of dry. I have tried mixing in with the wet and they will pick and choose and spit out the kibbles. It's a very good dry food, grain free holistic recommended by our breeder. It's pretty expensive with 4 cans of wet a day. What is everyone's opinion on dry vs. wet and should I try to get the to eat some? It seems that cats in the wild would not be eating something dried up and crunchy as they would kills a bird, mouse etc. so the dry does not seem natural to me. All of my other cats over the years at dry, but these bengals won't touch it!

I am slowly introducing mine into dry. Mostly by slowing down the wet food in a day. I began feeding wet food in the morning. They aren't going to starve themselves and they soon enough began munching the dry. You might need to experiment with different dry foods to find one they like. They don't eat the dry food as readily but I've noticed them eating more and more of it vs even the wet food in the morning.

Raiden only got dry food the first 6 years of his life. When I took him, I put him on wet food. He always has a bowl of dry food and he will munch on it at some point during the day, but he gets wet food. He prefers it ... so that's what I feed him. Just as there are some foods you refuse to eat -- cats can be the same way -- finicky is what they call it! LOL

My two babies are almost 4 months old and they will not eat one bite of dry. I have tried mixing in with the wet and they will pick and choose and spit out the kibbles. It's a very good dry food, grain free holistic recommended by our breeder. It's pretty expensive with 4 cans of wet a day. What is everyone's opinion on dry vs. wet and should I try to get the to eat some? It seems that cats in the wild would not be eating something dried up and crunchy as they would kills a bird, mouse etc. so the dry does not seem natural to me. All of my other cats over the years at dry, but these bengals won't touch it!

Several comments:

1. Based on what you've said above, I think the conclusion that your kittens "won't eat dry food" is questionable. How many brands/flavors have you tried? I'd say that my bengals, even when they were kittens, would have enthusiasm for eating maybe one brand/flavor in 3 or 4 that I tried, and they get pickier as they get older. And to make matters worse, their preferences change over time. Until you've tried a half dozen or more, I think all you can conclude is that they don't care for the brands/flavors that you've given them so far. It's kind of like feeding a kid broccoli and then concluding that he doesn't eat vegetables when he rejects that in favor of a slice of pizza or something. You can sometimes get samples of various foods at smaller pet stores. If you explain that you have kittens and are trying to find something that they will enjoy regularly, some will also be accommodating in terms of returns or even suggestions based on what other customer's cats seem to favor.

2. As far as the wet vs dry thing. Most books and articles about cat nutrition strongly favor wet food, because cats are obligate carnivores (only eat meat and other animal by-products in the wild), and wet food gives them more moisture and more meat protein and less vegetables, fruits, and grains, which aren't thought to benefit them other than just give them extra calories. Incidentally, many of the same sources will also strongly favor raw food over canned food because again it's a further step as a more natural food, and lets you have higher quality control over the ingredients, and less "bad stuff" in it.

But that said, for me personally, I've decided that it's useful to supplement the wet food meals with dry food because there are many situations in which serving wet food may not be practical or possible, so it adds a lot of versatility to their diet. This is even more true of kittens because they require 3-4 meals a day or more and that is difficult to do with wet food for many of us. What's funny is that vets seem to be all over the map on this. I've had two vets from the same practice lecture me on how I should feed only dry food, and the other say only wet food.

3. Never mix wet and dry food! You are making the dry food unsafe if you leave it out more than a short amount of time. Corroding it will all sorts of bacteria that will grow on it.

My two babies are almost 4 months old and they will not eat one bite of dry. I have tried mixing in with the wet and they will pick and choose and spit out the kibbles. It's a very good dry food, grain free holistic recommended by our breeder. It's pretty expensive with 4 cans of wet a day. What is everyone's opinion on dry vs. wet and should I try to get the to eat some? It seems that cats in the wild would not be eating something dried up and crunchy as they would kills a bird, mouse etc. so the dry does not seem natural to me. All of my other cats over the years at dry, but these bengals won't touch it!

Several comments:

1. Based on what you've said above, I think the conclusion that your kittens "won't eat dry food" is questionable. How many brands/flavors have you tried? I'd say that my bengals, even when they were kittens, would have enthusiasm for eating maybe one brand/flavor in 3 or 4 that I tried, and they get pickier as they get older. And to make matters worse, their preferences change over time. Until you've tried a half dozen or more, I think all you can conclude is that they don't care for the brands/flavors that you've given them so far. It's kind of like feeding a kid broccoli and then concluding that he doesn't eat vegetables when he rejects that in favor of a slice of pizza or something. You can sometimes get samples of various foods at smaller pet stores. If you explain that you have kittens and are trying to find something that they will enjoy regularly, some will also be accommodating in terms of returns or even suggestions based on what other customer's cats seem to favor.

2. As far as the wet vs dry thing. Most books and articles about cat nutrition strongly favor wet food, because cats are obligate carnivores (only eat meat and other animal by-products in the wild), and wet food gives them more moisture and more meat protein and less vegetables, fruits, and grains, which aren't thought to benefit them other than just give them extra calories. Incidentally, many of the same sources will also strongly favor raw food over canned food because again it's a further step as a more natural food, and lets you have higher quality control over the ingredients, and less "bad stuff" in it.

But that said, for me personally, I've decided that it's useful to supplement the wet food meals with dry food because there are many situations in which serving wet food may not be practical or possible, so it adds a lot of versatility to their diet. This is even more true of kittens because they require 3-4 meals a day or more and that is difficult to do with wet food for many of us. What's funny is that vets seem to be all over the map on this. I've had two vets from the same practice lecture me on how I should feed only dry food, and the other say only wet food.

3. Never mix wet and dry food! You are making the dry food unsafe if you leave it out more than a short amount of time. Corroding it will all sorts of bacteria that will grow on it.

Thanks for the good advice! I have only tried the one the breeder was feeding them - one of my kittens can't seem to eat treats either. The other, the boy almost bites my hand off. She sniff them and seems to try but can't pick them up. I have a grain free holistic dry and unfortunately thought they were eating at the breeders house so I bought a larger bag. I will experiment with other brands as well. My 10 year old calico won't eat that dry either. She has kidney issues and currently likes Kitten Chow, which I am fine with because I know it has extra calories and she needs as many as I can get into her.

If you think about it - a cat in the wild is going to kill a bird, mouse, etc. - no dry kibble there! That is the natural way for them to eat.I am goint to continue the canned, they love it too much! But try other dry and if they won't eat it I will not concern myself. I do agree, vets are all over the page on this - it's their opinioin, doesn't seem to be much hard cold fact involved.

My two are about 50/50 wet and dry now but when we first got them, Jagger wouldn't touch dry, I had to try many different brands but I have found one now that he loves and also suits Hendrix's delicate stomach. Apparently dry helps to keep their teeth clean (?) - I guess in the wild the bones in their prey would help with that.

Debbie - as you are in the UK and also having a problem, in case you haven't tried it already, my two eat Meowing Heads Chicken (Hey Good Looking) and they do kitten dry as well and it has a good meat content. Massive hit with them and it doesn't upset Hendrix's tummy either which is a bonus! My two also not interested in the usual treats - the only things they will eat are Thrive Chicken treats or Webbox sticks - although to be fair Jagger just plays with his and then Hendrix ends up having two, the greedy thing!

The dry food that I've settled them on is Wellness Kitten. It seems to be a good mix of wholesome and not insanely expensive, which to me is a happy arrangement. The kittens like it because the kibble size is manageable for small teeth. So they munch on it and many times, they will go through a cup of it in about a day and a half each. I looked for what seemed to be the best price and the better meaty ingredients to satisfy them. They still get their wet food in the morning though.

I did so much research before we adopted our 2 year old Bengal. I read so much about how we should only feed wet food or raw food online so that is what I do.I also did read that raw food can be dangerous on some websites and not to feed raw but I am convinced raw is best (my opinion only). I feed wet canned food in the mornings and raw food at night. All the raw food websites made me scared my cat wasn't getting enough bone or taurine, or too muchVitamin A etc... So, that is why I decided to do canned cat food (Wellness, Fussy Cat, or Blue) in the mornings since I know these are supposed to be balanced.My vet said that raw meat is so much better than any cat food that I can buy but I know vets are all over the place on this. Also, my cat doesn't hardly drink any water so I feel better knowing that the raw food and wet food he is eating is giving him the water he needs. Also, if I run low or out of raw, he has no problem eating the canned food.

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